'Dry Water' could be used to soak up CO2

A new use has been discovered for a substance named "dry water", which was discovered in the 60s. It's thought it could be used to soak up vast amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere for safe storage.

Dry water is so-called because it's 95 percent water. However, a silica cage around each droplet prevents them from binding together and turning back into water, making the substance into a fine powder instead. That powder is able to soak up gases, which combine with the water molecules to produce a hydrate. In CO2's case, the result is H2CO3 -- carbonic acid.

At the 24th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Ben Carter from the University of Liverpool explained the potential of dry water. In lab scale research, a team led by Prof. Andrew Cooper found that dry water is capable of absorbing three times the amount of carbon dioxide that regular, uncombined, water and silica can manage at the same time.

Dry water could also prove useful for storing methane. Carter suggests it could be employed as a kind of methane battery in vehicles powered by natural gas. Alternatively, engineers could use the powder to collect and store deposits of natural gas that are tricky to exploit using current methods. Methane is already stored naturally on the ocean floor in gas hydrates in the same way. However, Carter warned: "A great deal of work remains to be done before we could reach that stage."

Cooper's team are seeking additional collaboration, either academic or commercial, to try and further develop the substance.